Tuesday, June 24, 2014

It's time to get excited about The Legend of Korra again

I was already planning on writing a post with this title after Nickelodeon released the trailer to Book 3 of The Legend of Korra:

Then Nickelodeon announced that Book 3 will start to air on Friday (June 27), giving us even more reasons to get excited!

Contains spoilers for previous books!
I am a huge fan of Avatar: The Last Airbender and I loved the first book of The Legend of Korra, but I was somewhat disappointed by the second book. I wasn't sure how I felt about the upcoming season, but this trailer has done a lot to get me excited again!

From what I can tell, Book Three will include:

More Lin Beifong! This is my #1 hope for the third book. Also, flashbacks to young Lin! Would it be too much to hope for scenes of the past Lin/Tenzin romance?

Tenzin! Perhaps it was obvious that Tenzin would be in it, but Tenzin is great and I'm looking forward to more of him.

Old Zuko! Very cool.

A new Combustion Man-style villain, who is a young woman! Perhaps the original Combustion Man's daughter?

Lots of bending and action!

A sky whale! A frickin' sky whale!

The trailer also seems to feature some new airbenders, including what might be Bumi airbending. I can only assume that this is because the connection between the spirit world and the mortal world was left open at the end of the second book. I'm a little hesitant about how this will play out, but I trust that the creators will make the right call.

I tend to get excited about things and focus on the possibilities, but there are a few things I am hoping to avoid in this book. I will be keeping a close watch out for any angst, bickering, and/or love triangles, as these are the things that brought down Book Two. Also, I like so many of the existing characters that I worry that the creators will introduce more characters in this book, which would mean that the established characters would have less screen time. If the characters introduced in Book Two were any indication, this would be a bad thing indeed.

Before I get too worried, let's focus on what's important:

Lin Beifong is awesome

Tenzin is great

This show has amazing animation, including some of the best action in animation ever

Book Three will have a sky whale

Despite my disappointment with the second book and some lingering fears about what comes next, the trailer for Book Three has me optimistic, and I have decided to allow myself to get excited about The Legend of Korra again.